There's More Than One Way To Rebuild

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Heat May Draw From Blueprints Of Next Two Foes

MIAMI — Over its next two games, the Heat not only gets to take measure of one of the biggest trades of the offseason; it also can take measure of its future.

When the Grizzlies last June dealt their best player, forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim, to the Hawks for the No. 3 pick in the draft, it offered a contrast in the divergent paths NBA bottom-feeders take back to contention.

The Heat plays in Atlanta tonight and then hosts Memphis on Friday. Playing very much as a bottom feeder, the Heat could find itself in June faced with the same options the Grizzlies and Hawks faced six months ago.

The Grizzlies' approach was to load up through the draft, trading a sure thing in Abdur-Rahim for a double dose of youth. The Grizzlies used the No. 3 selection on Spanish League forward Pau Gasol and then used their own lottery pick, No. 6, on Duke forward Shane Battier.

Atlanta, already stocked with the youthful potential of Jason Terry, Dion Glover and DerMarr Johnson, among others, opted for perhaps the best-kept secret in the Western Conference.

The upshot is that Gasol is leading the Grizzlies in scoring -- he's the only rookie to lead a team in scoring this season -- and Abdur-Rahim is leading the Hawks in points, rebounds and blocked shots.

So which way is the right way? It is a decision the Heat could face following the conclusion of the season. If the Heat plays its way into a lottery pick, does it stop at just one and augment what already is in place? Or does it double down at the cost of say an Eddie Jones or Brian Grant?

"I'm not going to hypothetically go there,'' coach Pat Riley said after Wednesday's practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. "Once you have been a franchise that has been losing forever, then I think you start making some changes in direction that way. We've been losing for six weeks -- and badly.

"I think you have to be very careful in starting to blow things up. There's a lot of time to make those kinds of decisions."

Based on rhetoric from Atlanta and Memphis, the offseason collaboration benefited both franchises, even if it does not immediately show in the standings.

"Our rookies have already gone from one to five on a 10-point scale," Memphis coach Sidney Lowe told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "How much more can they go this year? They're ahead of the scale as far as I'm concerned."

Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley said the franchise never looked back.

"You're not going to go and do that and suddenly become one of the playoff contenders in your first year,'' he said of such a significant roll of the lottery dice. "But we're pretty certain we'll have players and a team people will be talking about in a few years."

Abdur-Rahim already has gone for 50 points in a game against Detroit this season and ranks sixth in the league in double-doubles.

Hawks General Manager Pete Babcock, whose team had gotten uneven results out of the lottery, said the safest thing in the NBA is the proven thing.

"Our whole goal with [the No. 3 pick] was to try to bring in a player who would make the biggest impact in the next five-plus years, whether it was the draft or by trade," he said. "We think Shareef, at 24 years of age, who scores 20 points a game and nine or 10 boards a game, is a perfect fit for us."

Or, as the Hawks' Terry said, "We had the best draft, and we didn't even draft a player."

In general, coaches tend to see value in an established presence, while front-office types tend to romanticize about the draft. With the Heat, Riley wears both hats, but foremost is a coach.

Tonight, at Philips Arena, the Heat will see firsthand what a lottery pick can yield in exchange. Friday night, at home against the Grizzlies, the Heat will see how the lottery can, with patience, invigorate a stale approach.

For his part, Riley took the middle ground after Wednesday's practice.

"Trading [Abdur-]Rahim surprised me a little bit, because I think he's a quality player,'' he said. "But Atlanta, you know, with [Toni] Kukoc and Rahim, [Theo] Ratliff, I thought they pretty much had turned the corner. It was a good trade for Atlanta."

He paused.

"And when you make trades for young players, Gasol has turned out to be a great young player. And they had the pick in Battier, they took him, and they got two very good young players."

CARTER WAITS

Heat point guard Anthony Carter continues to mull surgery for his abdominal strain. He said he may test the injury this weekend before requesting a third opinion. ... Guard Eddie House sprained his right wrist at Wednesday's practice and will be a game-time decision. ... Tests came back negative on the right knee of forward Malik Allen, who likely will miss at least two games with a strain.